This was so funny! I didn’t stop laughing! Some parts were obviously planned and were supposed to be funny but quite a few things went wrong when I went and even the actors couldn’t not laugh which added to the hilarity. It’s a simple story and the comedy is definitely the selling point here. Seeing their close interactions is great too!

Rating: 9/10 << might be in the race to be my favourite D-Stage! But I’ll have to rewatch it to decide that finally.

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First I will talk about the story:

Basically Miyazaki Shuuto* has always been told to aim for the Olympics but he doesn’t see the point; he’s on a losing streak, he doesn’t want to go to the Olympics, he doesn’t even think he likes it anymore. Then thanks to a trip to Tokyo with his Judo buddies, he has his first love, finds a rival and discovers what he really wanted to do and what Judo means to him.

*They’re using their own names for the characters.

Simple enough story right? Which is great because it left a LOT of room for the BIG theme of the play: the comedy. This was absolutely hilarious! A lot of it was planned comedy but unfortunately the day I went, a LOT of things went wrong or happened without the other actors knowing it was going to happen so not only were the audience laughing hard but also the actors were laughing insanely hard too that they had to stop the play a little so both actor and audience could calm down xD Which means it as a lot of great fun!

To be honest, when I first got my ticket and it was Row Z and the site said row Z is actually row 3 and a bench seat I kind of panicked because I imagined the type of benches we have to sit on in primary school in England and they are not comfortable! SO I was super worried I’d have to put up with one of those types of benches for a 2 hour plus show BUT when I got there they weren’t really benches; just normal chairs without the back and with a cushion! And my bad didn’t hurt at all! I was comfortable the entire time! Also I was super lucky that the person in front and the person next to me didn’t show up SO I was technically on my own and second row! Which made it SUPER easy for the actors to spot us; seriously the first row could TOUCH the stage without even stretching their arm out! And Mitsuya definitely spotted me and I think Ikeoka looked over a few times -- but being me I kept looking away from IkeP if he so much as seemed to see me, cos I’m a shy girl with my bias’ xD

SPOILERS

Anyway! Now to the parts of the play I wanna focus and talk about! First let’s talk about the PLANNED comedy okay?

This stage was a godsend in terms of reconfirming and reaffirming my love for IkeP. He did amazing in Yuhiden and Litche Hikari Club at the end of 2015 and that’s where I fell for him so I went into 2016 super hopeful for him but he only ended up doing like ONE play and ONE dorama and that was April and September, so I was super worried for his career and worried I wouldn’t be able to see more of him BUT we’re only in February and already he’s got a dorama airing, he’s doing a stage now and he’s definitely got Dansui stage in May! So he’s already doing more this year which makes me a super happy bunny and seeing him (finally!, again!) in this on Monday really helped me remember ‘ah yes I love this idiot’ xD he really is hilarious and cute!!

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That’s all I got to say really. I am very much looking forward to the DVD! It’s a thoroughly enjoyable play! Seriously, a lot of fun and I didn’t stop laughing for over 2 hours!

As you all know I got the 10th Anniversary DVD Box Set of D-Stage for Christmas last year and now I've FINALLY gotten around to reviewing them all even though I watched them all almost a year ago and I feel like I should rewatch them at the beginning of January... So I think I'll do all my reviews here anyway BUT if I wanna add something or talk about a stage in more detail once I've rewatched them during the new year, I'll do another post then, sound good? Okay lets get on with these FOURTEEN stages! *dead already*

**Btw all their stages info can be found here. Cannot believe we're on Stage 20 next February!

**(For some reason I thought either the website or the booklet had stated how many people went to watch each stage, but I can't find that info in either of them! I know I didn't imagine it... where the hell did I see that info... it's gunna drive me mad not knowing...)

I don't know why they called it 4 and 10, maybe they tried of 10 or more different combinations of the boys before they decided the two best groups? Also I don't know why they did it twice BUT I'm glad they did because even though the story is the exact same, each of the boys makes the character their own! This is basically a historical stage (as you can tell from the pictures) and I can't quite remember when it's set but it's like 1600s and basically the karasu (= crows) are against the main emperor army and it's about how they formed and they go against the army towards the end.

First let me talk about Karasu 4 which I preferred the most out of the two (but this could be simply down to seeing that version first or because I'm more Tomo biased than Seto biased xD):

And my notes stop there. Did that make any sense?! I'm slowly starting to see a pattern with my notes. Because I was super new to stage at the time, I was more fixated on how everything looked but now that I've been watching and paying attention to stages for over a year now, I now focus more on the story and pace and other aesthetics like the staging etc. which at the time of writing these notes I didn't know much about hence why it's so 'this moment was good!' and appearance based.

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Now for Karasu 10! The rating for this one is a little lower because, as stated, I prefer the Vol.4 one.

It's safe to assume that Last Game was super popular the first time and that's why they wanted to redo it and retry it. Naturally the mains have changed over the 2 years since it was last performed and Seto is now the main lead. I won't need to go into too much detail this time, only mention the differences.

Now this one I actually watched for the first time YEARS ago. Just after Merchant of Venice came out on DVD (late-2012), this was the second ever D-Stage I eer watched and even though at the time my Japanese was piss-poor, I still ended up crying at the end... watching it this time and actually understanding it - and I NEVER have forgotten how I felt the first time I ever watched this - I was a wreck. I never want to watch this again but oh my this is one hell of a good stage!

This was the first D-Stage I ever saw! I first watched it.... over 4 years ago and loved it straight away! Rewatching it this time gave me so many feels and nostalgia and it made me remember how much I love Kaji and how great Usui is as an actor and I love how they did the modern/historical theme mix! This is the first Shakespeare play D-Stage ever did and their Shakespeare series is probably one of their strongest production series that they've ever done.

There was actually four teams; Red, White, Blue and (I think) Green, so they shuffled the 8 main actors about a bit. I was lucky enough, and crazy enough, to go and see this the first time I went to Japan. I kinda bought the ticket on a whim, bought my flight and went to Japan and watched this and omg it's still one of the best moments of my life and I remember Kaji Masaki came the day I went and he was like 2 rows behind me! I wonder if I wrote a review for that time... *searches* Holy crap I did write a review for that time! =O I'm so surprised at how well I understood that play all those years ago! I saw the White team which was Seto, Tomo, Usui and Taito! Now onto the Red and Blue versions:

This was the first D-Stage the D2Boys did officially as D2Boys and at the time it got a LOT of hate but also a LOT of support. It still goes on now but there is/were this HUGE divide between D-Boys fans and D2Boys fans and D-Boys fans wouldn't recognise the fans or the D2Boys as D-Boys and stuff. It was a crazy time and it still sometimes happens. ESPECIALLY because yesterday (yesterday now being December 13th) I learnt that when Tomo did the after talk for this stage, apparently (I'm hearing two types of stories) he only commented on how visually good it looked and/or he only had criticisms for the boys. Looking and searching for past tweets, it's clear he did mention that the set looked really good but also he talks about Claus and how he'd like to do that role and IkeP mentioned that he thinks he'd suit Petro's role and stuff. SO I'm not really sure what went down but according to me friend 'because of his comments, it became a blood bath' so I can only really rely on my friend's recaption. Unless anyone can point me to fan blogs and fan reviews from that time. It doesn't change my opinion of Tomo if he was a dick and did just sit there criticsing the boys because I'm in it for the long run with Tomo; the good and the bad so I'm not going to just abandon him because of some dick move he possibly pulled - that's just not how a relationship works right? xD

Anyway I've reviewed these two before so check these out TRUTH and Reverse << holy crap it's been like exactly a month since I first watched this!! WAAAH?!?! xD

I love Trump, we all know this xD and I have actually watched the 2015 re-produced (not D-Boys) version and I much prefer the D-Stage version.

This is the first musical D-Stage did! This was originally a Korean dorama and they took the script, translated it and made it into a stage so that's why the title is so strange and I'm pretty sure they keep all the korean names too. This is about ikemen in a vegetable shop pretty much. I honestly do no remember much else xD

This is their second Shakespeare play and just like the first one it was hilarious, enjoyable, did not disappoint and I could easily watch it over and over. It's very similar to the first one too, but that could just be Shakespeare uses the same elements over and over again such as 'male actors crossdressing as females who then pretend to be males' as well as 'love at first sight' and hyperbole.

Okay I am a crazy motherchucker who went and watched his 5, yes five, times! But also in my defense, when I hit for ALL 5 back in May, you either paid for all the tickets or didn't pay for any (you couldn't pick and choose) so technically it's their fault xD but anyway!

Before the play I obviously read the actual Shakespearian play and while it took me a few acts to get used to the language again, I had no problem understanding it which is awesome! But I was super surprised at how many people hadn't read Shakespeare! Like people were ridiculously shocked at some moments and I was like 'read the book! How have you not read the book?!?!' but I kinda have to remember that Shakespeare isn't in the school cirriculum here... but still! Don't people usually read the adapted books before they see something?!?!?! Or again, is that just me?

Luckily the play follows the script rather faithfully and even more luckily is that in Japanese? They use SUPER modern and simple Japanese, unlike the Shakespearian language, so the stage was easy to understand too! ^_^

I'll go through the story and such and the scenes in as much order as I can and then I'll do little sections between where things changes as I went through the performances... make sense? I hope it did xD

So first thing which surprised me is that when I walked in, BAM(!) Tomo is stood at the front of the stage looking straight at me. Every performance from doors opening the actors would be on stage preparing. First it would be Tomo-Mae-Nishi, Then Mikami would come on and soon after Tomo would leave, but then Kaji-Yamada-Okubo-Endo-Yamada would come on and they would probably laugh and talk amongst themselves or they would start to play games (like wink murder or this game where you have to say 'shashashashasha jijijijiji' which always killed me xD And during this opening, Mae, Nishii, Mikami would leave. Finally Mikami, Mae and Nishi would come back on, Mikami was in charge of telling the audience to turn their phones off etc. and finally the Duke Senior would come on in full clothing and the show would begin.

10/18 (= October 18th) Tomo's control of handstands is amazing! He would do cartwheels and handstands on the stage (he did it another few times too during the performances I watched). Today they played the whistle song was hilarious xD One of the guys couldn't actually whistle! We all lost it >.< also, Nishi really does remind me of my sister xD10/20 Probably because they saw me, they would start saying (in English) 'Who are you?! I'm Celia! I'm Orlando!' etc. Nishi cannot pronounce Celia in English to save his life, he said SHEEEElia instead xD totally cute. But everyone in the audience laughed so it's not just be who knew it sounded wrong.10/24 Tomo had even MORE control over his handstands this day. And they did the English thing again xD Also Yamada told Kaji and Okubou that he'd gotten his nose hairs (ripped) taken out and Kaji was like 'that's bad! You no long have a forest to protect you from germs getting inside... what if you sneeze?!' which is actually a very valid point but also amusing to hear.

We first begin with the music and those on stage would do a clapping opening. I can't really explain it but I really enjoy the scene a lot! (I just checked the script one last time and yes it follows the play exactly - although I feel an Audrey/Touchstone scene got moved up but that's about it, so I'm not gunna explain much of the actual scenes, you can read scene summaries for that!)

And there we have it! I should really be more organised. I should write one review and just add to it as I go through the performances... but I didn't do that so I had a mass of notes in DATE order rather than story order xD

Acting Troupe D-BOYS' Direct Hit on Dramatic Dream LifeDramas, Movies, Theater and the like, they're working on multi-platforms. Watanabe Entertaint's Acting Troupe D-BOYS. This is the guys' direct hit projects and dramatic dream lives serialisation!This time; Opening from October 14th is D-Stage's 19th 'As You Like It' which these three will appear in ♪

✰ Tomo-san (Yanagishita) is an ill-tempered, hot/cold guy usually but that's just a spur of his love *laugh*

--D-Stage 19th 'As You Like It' has a long rehearsal period but, at this current stage what's the reaction been like?

Makita Tetsuya: Maechan (Maeyama) who is performing as Rosalind has a lot of lines and is someone who drives the story forward. However, it's a female role and half way through she dresses as a man which is a complicated role to attempt/challenge, but he was able to unlayer the character, right?Maeyama Takahisa: You're right. I feel I got it right.Yanagishita Tomo: *imitating Maeyama's tiny voice* Thanks to who?!Maeyama: It's all thanks to Tomo-san *laughs*Yanagishita: What? Me? I didn't really do anything though!?Makita: You guys are annoying! *laughs*

**Important!** If I spend over 2000 yen (which I always do just for myself anyway) I can pick any member’s bromide (for free) as a present (so long as it isn’t sold out). So if I DO go over, which member bromide would you prefer?

*Totals will be messaged to you, which includes paypal fee and shipping fee, for confirmation before the paypal bill is sent to you!

Order Deadline: Friday 9th OR 16th September at Midnight (JPN)Payment Deadline: Sunday 11th OR 18th September at Midnight (JPN)Goods Buying Days: Tuesday and Wednesday September 13th and 14th (or Monday the 12th) OR 20th and 21st

*Depending on how fast orders come in and stuff will depend on which day I’ll do but I would personally prefer to go the 12th/13th.

Also at the cinema there was a SIGNED poster from the cast! And we were allowed to take pics <3

--

Also the cinema was advertising Article 9! Which has Baba, Takachan, Makichan, Aiba, some seriously great stage actors! So I'm defo gunna try and see it too!

Overall: This was scary. It's a horror, what do you expect? But I was SO impressed with the plot twist and the cinematography and how gorgeous everyone looked! Aoki defo stole the show! But that ending was messed up!Rating: 7/10

I watched most (or all) of the anime before watching this - and I think I decided to watch this play because of.... Shouta? So I went in NOT knowing just how well known Tomoru is and I clearly went into it not knowing a thing about MakiChan (thus this began my love and discovery of him). I really enjoyed this! This'll be a little over the place as A. it's been months since I watched it B. my notes are pretty much NEVER in order C. I wanna get this done asap.

This was so hilarious and professionally unprofessional and I'm SO glad I broke last week and preordered the DVD (which comes out on Thursday!) cos I seriously wanna see this again! I hope they do a second stage in the future! It was so much fun and swear to go 50% of it was adlibbed xDRating: 9/10

I watched this on Tuesday and it was the black version so the main cast was Jinnai Sho and not Mitsuya Ryo.

I went into this play expecting it to be serious and dark because A. it's about Sakamoto Ryoma so you'd assume it'd be a historical and about his life and B. I've never watched a Caramel Box productions but because they have a lot of older actors, I expected them to do more serious roles.

Overall: I got the complete opposite of what I was expecting and I enjoyed it SO much! While watching it, I was reminded just how amazing D-Boys are and just how much I love them <3 Wish I had the time and money to see the WHITE version. The story is actually really simple and stupid but once you include the comedy and the action, it's really enjoyable!Rating: 7/10

I asked a few questions in this post so incase you forgot, or in case you only read the non-spoiler review: Can you let me know of roles and productions where:- MaeChan's played a darker, rougher role without a hint of femininity- Mitsuya's played a non-cute role- Yamada's played something other than a salary man who's set in his ways and is thus annoying.

Cannot believe I was in the front row!!! So close!!! I still needed my glasses though which is NOT a good thing.. I am gunna have to get new glasses before May or else I am screwed at both Fairy Tale and KAT-TUN concerts (that were announced last week on Tuesday night btw xP). But onto the show!!

Overall: This was SO much fun! I haven't laughed this hard in a while! It was THAT hilarious my true laughter came out! I could not contain myself at all! I really liked how we got to see the feminine side/performacen of Maechan as well as the more masculine role of Shion. Yuya definitely sold the show though and he reminds me A LOT of Kaji!! But I am curious as to which performances they've filmed for the DVD!Rating: 9/10

I think I have finally solidified my list! Don't kill me! And obviously this list doesn't include anything that came out AFTER the DVD collection ^_^

TRUMP

Twelfth Night

Merchant of Venice

Karasu 4

Samishii Magnet REDS

Samishii Magnet BLUES

TRUMP Reverse

Karasu 10

America

Chonganne

Now Loading

Last Game

Last Game 2010

Kool no Tanjyou

Konbai Onrei

The highest rating I gave with 9/10 which was for TRUMP, 12th Night and Merchant of Venice. The lowest I gave was 5 out of 10 which I gave to Konbai Onrei and Kool no Tanjyou (but I still enjoyed them a lot!). My 'Watchability' list would be very similar to this list, but I definitely think out of all of them I am least likely to rewatch the LAST GAME's just purely because I don't do WW2 stuff even though I adore baseball but the story is overall very gloomy and takes a lot out of you emotionally. I would happily rewatch TRUMP, 12th, Merchant, Karasu 4 and both Samishii's on repeat all day, every day, any day! xD

Overall: I really enjoyed this! Just like everyone else before me, the theme was great! It was a great ride to be able to go back and see all the past productions they've done (even though out of all the ones they showed, I've only watched TRUMP) but it was also great to see the D2Boys take the roles of their senpais. I found it thoroughly entertaining, a lot of fun and it definitely got emotional at the end. BUT I wouldn't say it was better than D LIVE 2015, I'd say they're both great and both have amazing points and both have some not so good points (maybe?) so I like them both and will definitely rewatch this after I've seen all the D-Stage, I think at that point, it'll have a much more meaningful impression on me ^_^ Also, Mitsu has WAY too much energy! But it's adorable <3

What did you think? Did you prefer 2014 to 2015? What parts are your favourite? What parts made you cry? Let me know about everything!

Sophie: Nishi (I just like him playing helpless roles)Ul: Mitsuya (I prefer his supportive Ul than his bad attitude Sophie)Kraus: Jinnai (The way he says Allen, his voice, just his whole personality and how he acts suspicious all the way through. He doesn't play it stupidly unlike Yamada too)Allen: Jinnai (sorry Yamada =/ but Jinnai is just sexy as FUUUUU as Allen)Angelico: Jun (it's the damn blonde hair. Also I like how he plays the role more of a spoilt brat rather than Shintaro who plays it more seriously)Raphael: Shintaro (He fit's the whole "I hate those eyes: trait and he seems a lot more protective and strong compared to Jun's Raphael who seemed too soft and light)George: Arai (although would've like to have seen another do this character. Maybe Okubo or Negi?)Angelico Henchman: I like both Negi and Okubo as hencemen.... Arai is a constant so can't change that...Banli: Shion (I love how he's more suspicious looking and his smile is brilliant <3)Dali: Kamitsuru (He's just a lot funnier.... not funnier but he improvised so naturally which I like and he could hit the comedic notes perfectly)Pietro: IkeP (cos he's a cutie in those earmuffs <3)Michelangelo: You-chan (he plays the female role SO well. Kenki is great too but You-chan looks much better as the woman than Kenki xD)Gustav: Kenki (although You-chan's is seriously close! I would say they are joint actually... yeah... they're joint! *changes*) Kenki/You-chan/BOTH!The Three Elites: Mae-Shiramata-Negi (they're just much more hilarious! xD)

Here I am!!!! The Truth Version is here. Let's get straight into it shall we, Elite-sama?

* This version of Reverse was better quality than what I had of Truth, but still I need more HQ!! xD Fingers crossed the DVDs (when I get them shhh) are better but I am still VERY greatful to the people who uplaoded both versions! ^_^

Overall: I really liked this version too. There was a lot more gayness in this version and it was interesting seeing every doing each other's role. They definitely all played the characters different. BUT, I do prefer Truth; Truth is much more funny and I feel they fit their characters more in Truth rather than Reverse. Nevertheless, I will still continue to watch both version >.<

Also, I am way too obsessed with this stage play and need something else to obsess over -- any suggests?! I've already rewatched Truth like 10 times and Reverse about 4 times in less than two weeks! I put it on EVERY night before I go to sleep! o_O I need help xD

So this past week I have been heavily obsessed with this play. I've watched it like 5 times xD And I've finally ended up with two pages full of notes and I wanna share them with you all!

First as always is my play-by-play then my overall thoughts at the end and possible pic-spamming xD I will also have text in italics for any comments that I made during my 2nd - 5th watchthrough of it and possibly a (number) stating which time it was that I'd made the comment xD sound complicated but hopefully won't be! SO! Here we go!!

Overal Thoughts:When this play first got announced way back in 2012, I immiediatly wanted to watch it! I was more hyped after seeing the photoshoot trailer! But cos I was in England I couldn't watch it. And in true MP style I started watching this play without knowing what the hell it's about, cos I do that with ALL D-Stage plays xD And oh man oh man, when it introduced that it's about vampires. I was fucking on board; for good or for bad cos I freaking LOVE vampires!

I enjoyed this so much!!1 Like omg the story was interesting, ALL the characters were doing something interesting all the time! The use of the stage was amazing! The transition between scenes was amazing! My mind was blown quite a few times and I wasn't really expecting many of the reveals even though the theory had crossed my mind! Omg I loved this. D-Boys did it again!! Every single time they produced something seriously amazing!!! I have so many favourite things from this play and even on my 5th watch I was still heavily laughing at the same things!! The person/characters who stood out the most was obviously JunJun cos I have a sick attraction to crazy, evil characters as well all know from my obsession with Hirugo from Yuhiden >.< but Angelico was just <33 My least favourite, surprisingly, is Ul but for no realy reason, he just didn't catch my eye as much as the other people but his scenes were definitely touching! What other praise can I give without spoiling much... the sync! They all sync so well together! <3 But we knew that anyway cos D-Boys always get along well xD

I honestly have two negatives and they ain't really negativres:1. Jun's laugh was a little weak for his character but I enjoyed his laugh none the less <32. I need a prequel, sequel and three more hours of this please!!!!

But yes, this is amazing. Everyone should watch it! Especially vampire lovers! It's a nice twist on the vampire theme!

And there we have my review of TRUMP!!Also, if anyone has any TRUMP pictures that weren't on the d2boys tumblr (yes all my pictures are from there!!), then please share!! xD GIFs would be even more perfect!

I tried my best!! If I missed anything or got something wrong then please let me know ASAP!!! tilmon originally requested this but it's a great idea anyway and it gives me another reason to annoy everyone with the play and allows me to reply it in my mind once more xD I also wasn't sure how SPOILERY to make these...

*EDIT: Notices that the website has Character profiles after finalising this... decides to add them into the massive profiles that she's already written above. Added parts from the website will be in italics.

*EDIT 2: So glad I read the official profiles too! I didn't know anything about Marada it seems.

You can tell who I did and didn't pay attention to by how much added text from the official profiles is here xD Oopsies! Hope I didn't accidently offend anyone!!

Backstory: I had seen Yuhiden 10 times and was now seeing it for it final showing that was in Fukuoka (weird!!)

Dream:

I unfortunately had a seat right at the back but while waiting for it to start, Ryuki came out and we got talking and his phone went off and he was like 'It's from Kristie' implying he messed around with western fans o_O but anyway we talked and chilled then he went off and it began. BUT Endo had been in Osaka and arrived late so couldn't participate in the play so he sat next to me and he treated me like his daughter xD Partway through I decide to go to the bathroom and I noticed Seto had left a note unattended next to where their manager should be and it read that they were going to an Izakaya after the show to celebrate. So naturaly I started thinking 'Do I stalk them or not?' .. but I decided against it BUT on my way home, Seto spotted me and recognised me! o-O

Also the evening ended with fangirling for about 3 hours with Tilmon and it was amazing!!! We spoke about SO many things that we're both passionate about! AND the girl at the restaurant we were at was like 'You went to Yuhiden? How was it?' xD IT WAS AMAZING!!! Both the stage and hanging out with Tilmon <3

And yes I have ALREADY pre-ordered this bitch <3 Cos FUCK! So amazing!!! Just like every other fucking D-STAGE <3